Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18263 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

An entertaining insight into the world of psychotherapy
Irvin Yalom has written some modern 'classics' on the subject of psychoanalysis, and so I was fascinated to see that he had also written a novel on this topic too. How would he be able to create a plot that was true to life without becoming cynical about his own profession, or painting a picture of psychotherapists that was 'too good to be true'. In fact, I found this novel to be a well constructed - if rather ponderous at times - and entertaining read; the characters are neither black nor white morally, and the therapists come over as being just as screwed up as their patients! Which is refreshing! And honest... Some clever twists in the plot, and some very telling comments about psychoanalytic interventions made this a very good read on a recent trip - try it!

Psychoanalysis on the couch
This is a fascinating and most entertaining novel by an American professor of psychiatry. True, several strands in the novel interweave at the end in a rather contrived manner: the coincidences that bring this about are somewhat unlikely, and the last few pages, though moving, are completely unbelievable. Never mind: just suspend your disbelief and enjoy. Without giving away the plot, its main subject is how two people go insincerely and schemingly into psychoanalysis with unsuspecting analysts. (Note the double entendre in the title of the book.) We are told about their thought-processes and about those of the analysts. Those of the analysts are an amusing mix between, on the one hand, the psychoanalytical theory and the professional ethics they try to apply and, on the other, their own vulnerabilities to eroticism, power and money. The scheming patients get more than they bargained for.

Those who know little about psychoanalysis will learn a lot about it; those who are already familiar with it will find both the interior and the exterior dialogue wickedly funny. But having had his fun in mocking some aspects of his own profession, Yalom in the end validates it. And I think he wants to convey a serious and controversial message of his own: that there may be ways of helping a patient that could be more fruitful than the cultivation of the analyst’s remoteness from the patient on which orthodox theory insists.

Great author, great idea, poor execution
I love Irvin Yalom's work. His ideas are great and his ability to express complex psychotherapeutic issues is unparralleled. But not in this book. Many of the ideas are intriguing and he obviously had a great plot lined up. He also had a lot of great insights about the profession of therapy - especially the old fashioned analytic kind. Any psychotherapist or counsellor should read this book for their own good. And yes I did enjoy it. But that isnt the whole story. After the lucidity of the great textbook on the Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy I wasdisappointed by the frequency of lapses in literary style. A case of an author not reading their own work with a sufficently critical eye I hope - rather than a lapse of writing ability. Too many characters express themseleves or are described in the same ways and distinct phrases and words recur obtrusively. Sometimes that is to make a point about the prentiousness of the character but sometimes I wonder whether it was saying more about the lack of really thorough proof reading. A great literary editor missed a job here. If publishers were not so keen to publish work quickly - and were willing to spend more on attention to detail this otherwise really good read would have been even mroe enojoyable. I work in the therapy world and chuckled at the horrors I recognised and squirmed whenever I recognised myself - and to that extent irvin really did do a good job. Shame it wasnt quite polished off.